


Perception (who am I?)

by Ornery Otter (Greiver_Dhark)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Empathy/passive telepathy of sorts, I'm not sure what this is but thought it was pretty interesting, Pereception & the mind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-12 14:56:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4483658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greiver_Dhark/pseuds/Ornery%20Otter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by my musings on telepathy and empathy, and what sorts of things can affect the mind and perception. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this and it doesn't seem to be fandom-specific.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perception (who am I?)

The biggest problem with his dreams were that they felt perfectly normal when he was in them. It was completely fine that he suddenly worked in the military, or a strange company, or that he was on submarine, or under attack from velociraptors. No matter what he was dreaming about, while he was dreaming it felt like the most natural thing in the world to be in that position. Even when he dreamed that he was backflipping across the yard of his school, or had opened a door to find a bunch of aliens learning basic IT. It was like his mind was just accepting of anything, in his dreams. 

And that was the problem - because once it felt normal and okay to him in a dream, it felt normal in the real world too. Suddenly it didn't matter what the hell he was doing or what was going on - he could handle it, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Being in a bank while it was getting held up, nothing to worry about. Slipping into restricted areas - no problem. It was like he was losing the ability to feel that things were wrong or of concern. 

Of course it had its perks - sometimes hesitation and second guessing yourself could lead to you getting caught, but at the same time it felt like he was losing something important, losing perspective maybe, he wasn't sure. 

Either way it was starting to have a noticeable effect on him, on how he acted and thought. It used to be that he'd never even consider sneaking into somewhere he wasn't supposed to be, but now it was almost a go-to option. Life was so much easier when silly things like what you were 'supposed' to do didn't hold you back. Of course, he was coming to realise, it also meant that he was taking bigger risks and eventually he was going to lose something, maybe everything, for all that he was gaining by acting this way. 

The fact of the matter was, people were influenced by the things around them. His mentor had always told him to keep a good bunch of people around him, to keep him good too - now he understood why. 

It hadn't even been something he was conscious of at first - sure he'd had plenty of 'moral lessons' when he was a boy, but it had always seemed like empty rhetoric. He'd never really understood why they kept going on about it - not like he did now. 

It was ao insidious, changing him without him really noticing. It all seemed so normal, like nothing was wrong - but he was beginning to see that that wasn't the case. 

It had taken him three years to get to this point. 

Three years since he'd lost those 'good people' he'd always been told to surround himself with. It wasn't even anything grand - they'd just drifted apart and he'd not tried hard enough to hold on to them, not thinking it was a big deal for him to be alone, or to move on. Turns out he was wrong - it really was important to surround yourself with good people - especially him. 

The people around you influenced you - but also reflected you, in a way. People fed off eachother - their emotions, their opinions, everything. He just happened to feed a little more directly than that. 

In part, it was a change in perspective, a broadening of the mind. For most people, certain things were so far off the table they didn't even come to mind. For example, most people, when finding out they'd locked themselves out of their apartment, would call the building supervisor, or attempt to enter the apartment in some other safe and normal way. It didn't occur to them to try climbing up the fire escape and shuffle along the window ledges six floors up from ground level, or try and pick their own lock, or try and come down from the roof - bust through the window if you had to. Those sorts of 'solutions' didn't even come to most people - but they came to him now. 

Perhaps it was just bad luck - maybe he'd picked up some thought processes from some undesirable people. Or maybe these were just his own thoughts, his own methods, without the blanket of others stifling him. Maybe this was how his mind worked, when he didn't have people around him guiding him on what was socially acceptable, normal behaviour. Most people wouldn't use a knife to open their can of beans if they couldn't find their can opener - he barely bothered to look for the opener at all, just went straight for the knife. 

It was priorities, and perspective, and he felt like he was losing track of both.

**Author's Note:**

> This kinda came out of nowhere, but was surprisingly easy to develop - I've got no direction for it and can't seem to apply it to a fandom like I normally would, but if anyone has any ideas, let me know!


End file.
